An Out-of-this-World Homeschool Opportunity

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When you think about homeschooling, what comes to mind? What are your concerns? Whether you have been homeschooling for years or you are new to the journey, you may have questions about curriculum, field trips, co-ops, and more. With different social media platforms and numerous websites, you are never far away from connecting with homeschoolers or finding answers to your questions. But what are those questions? And how can we provide our children with an out-of-the-world homeschool experience? 

Common Questions Asked by Homeschoolers 

1. What about socialization?

2. What is the best curriculum? 

3. How do you grade assignments or courses? 

4. How do you teach multiple grades? 

Socialization and Making Friends 

When people find out someone is homeschooling, they often want to know about socialization. How will the children make friends? But when you really think about it, when schools force children to be together in one classroom for the majority of the day, do they really get to socialize? Didn't we all have that one teacher who said, "You aren't here to socialize?" After all, school is supposed to be a place of learning, not talking and having fun.

If school is not for socialization, where do children make friends? Well, there are many places for children to find others with similar interests. There are sports teams that are not connected to public schools, homeschool co-ops, clubs through the library, and activities at church and with neighbors and family. Our homeschooled children can find friends in many places. And they will find friends of different ages and those that have lived different lives, since they are not only choosing from 30 kids in their classroom.

We can provide our homeschooled children with many out-of-the-box opportunities to allow them to meet new people and experience the world around them. They will gain the skills they need to interact with people of different ages, beliefs, ethnicities, etc., just by participating in daily life. What a beautiful way to introduce them to God's world! 

Curriculum 

What curriculum you choose will depend greatly upon your worldview, your children, your teaching methods, and your budget. There is a multitude of curriculum providers, from those who sell everything in one neat package to those who provide individual subjects, classes, or materials. Some families find it easier to purchase everything – math, language arts, history, science, etc. – from one company, while other families prefer to shop from among a variety of companies. 

Over the past several years, we have found numerous curriculum companies and providers whose products work well for our children. We want to teach our children with a Biblical worldview, but I am not opposed to materials that are secular as long as they do not teach anything that goes against our faith.

Some of our favorite curricula or providers include: 

• My Father's World: Studying God's Creation from A to Z: A Review of My Father's World Kindergarten Curriculum
• SchoolhouseTeachers.com
• Home School in the Woods 
• CTCMath 
• Memoria Press 

Grading Opportunities 

Depending upon which state you live in, your grading needs may be different from mine or someone else reading this post. You may need to keep graded assignments for each course, starting with elementary all the way through high school, or you may not need to worry about grades until you start recording them for a high school transcript. 

If your curriculum comes with an answer key, then you are all set. You can use that to make corrections and then ensure your child understands the corrections. They should be able to fix their mistakes and apply the corrections to their next assignment. You don't want to just grade something and then file it away. Your child should use those graded assignments to study and make corrections in their own learning. You can also use them to help guide your lessons. If they don't understand the 4 times table, don't move on to the next math lesson until they do.

If there is no answer key, you will need to do more work as a parent with your child. What if they are writing an essay or research paper? You may have a rubric to help you grade the essay, but you may not be familiar with the subject material. So you may need to do some studying yourself or seek help from someone who knows the subject matter. Keep in mind that sometimes teachers assign topics that they are not super familiar with, and they still grade your children's papers. They are usually looking for a strong thesis, well-written paragraphs, and details that support their thesis. You can do the same!

Multiple Grades 

The usual approach to schooling is to put children of certain ages together in grades. They get separated out based on their age, not on their ability. We don't need to do that as we homeschool. We can provide our children with an out-of-this-world learning opportunity. We can teach all our children at the same time. Their individual assignments may look different. They may be reading different books independently or working on a variety of math problems, but we can spend time learning together. 

Our younger children are close in age and grade level, so we spend a lot of time learning together. In fact, we use our daughter's curriculum as our spine and then add in what we need for each of them. Since we sit together at the dining room table, they both listen in to each other's lessons at times and pick up new things even if they aren't studying that particular subject or topic. For example, our daughter has been introduced to multiplication as her brother studies it. She hasn't had official lessons on multiplication yet, but she will have a general understanding when we do start those lessons. 

The easiest way to teach multiple grades together is to spend time reading aloud. You can read aloud history books, living fiction, science books, textbooks, the Bible, and more. Your children can work on independent work, color, draw, or play with quiet toys while you read aloud. Reading aloud gives you the opportunity to discuss what you are reading and share special time together as a family. Our read-aloud times are some of my favorite homeschooling times. 

What Questions Do You Still Have? 

We've looked at a few questions today that are common among new homeschoolers. What questions do you still have? Please ask in the comments.